Photoshoot: Alfred [Kung Fu Shots][7 Pics] [Archive] - Canon Digital Photography Forums

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jO3

9th of May 2005 (Mon), 04:06

This is Alfred Hsing, a UCLA student who's looking into a career as an action movie actor... He definitely has the moves, and he did a short featurette with MTV for the movie Kung Fu Hustle...

The reason we chose the location we did was for two reasons: (1) Some casting agencies wanted headshots and action shots of his, and this was the same location that MTV filmed the featurette, and (2) we wanted to mimic some scenes and settings from Kung Fu hustle, which was filmed in a village with kind of a hotel style like in the following pictures...

Time of day was mid-afternoon, and lighting was horrible. Most of these shots were done with natural light, and others using an Umbrella for fill and a strobe for backlight...

Equipment used was a 50mm 1.4 on a 10D.

1. Cool pose, I don't really like the composition/background, but he loved this one for some reason
http://www.jo3design.com/gallery/albums/alfred01/CRW_0439.jpg

2. I'm going to have to adjust some levels and contrast in this one, but I love the angle of this shot
http://www.jo3design.com/gallery/albums/alfred01/IMG_0468.jpg

3. This pic was the one we decided for his business card.
http://www.jo3design.com/gallery/albums/alfred01/IMG_0470.jpg

4. Kind of blurred, but shows his versatility. He was actually about 4 feet off the ground for this one from a running start
http://www.jo3design.com/gallery/albums/alfred01/IMG_0471.jpg

5. Just one more of his many versatile poses.
http://www.jo3design.com/gallery/albums/alfred01/IMG_0478.jpg

6. An 18-inch reflector was used for this one, just to highlight his face, which signifies a part of Kung Fu Hustle that we were trying to recreate... I chose this angle because I wanted his attire to blend with the shadows in the background.
http://www.jo3design.com/gallery/albums/alfred01/IMG_0521.jpg

7. Just a headshot
http://www.jo3design.com/gallery/albums/alfred01/IMG_0589.jpg

None of these pictures are post-processed. I know they came out a bit dark, and that was because I was on a tight schedule (2 shoots this day, and working at a nightclub in the evening), and I never actually checked the levels of my test shots... Just the LCD display, which I had turned up to see better in the sunlight. My bad.

All critique and comments are welcome.

-photo joe

charlesu

9th of May 2005 (Mon), 05:09

I like the flying side kick shot. Wish I could still do that (the kick, not the shot). Alas, gravity has taken a stronger hold on me in the last 20 years.

jO3

9th of May 2005 (Mon), 05:12

bikerider

9th of May 2005 (Mon), 05:23

I also like the kick-shot and the folded arms, black coat, very Chinese cinema shot.

berrylish

9th of May 2005 (Mon), 08:02

Yay for wushu! :p

Saw Alfred Hsing demo once a while back. Nice shots.

Bruce Hamilton

9th of May 2005 (Mon), 08:29

That flying side kick would be awesome if the background were more blurred showing motion. Too sharp, looks like he simply jumped on a trampolene and assumed the position.

sixshot

9th of May 2005 (Mon), 08:53

Such cool shots. Never found anyone in China that actually can do half of this stuff.

Ballen Photo

9th of May 2005 (Mon), 09:20

Very nice captures Jo, I'd have to say the flying sidekick was my fave of the bunch as well. :D
-Bruce

pyterps

9th of May 2005 (Mon), 11:35

I agree, I like the side kick also. Like Charles my body will not allow me to get up that high anymore. It's like in high school when I could slam one and now I get lucky to tuch the net.

I also agree the background takes away from the shot and would be nice to have it blurred.

You could always have him stand in the spot where the picture will occure and focus on that spot and then pan and shoot when he does the kick. From what I read this is done in sports photography sometimes and just before the player reaches that spot they start firing and some will not be in focus and some will be.

Andy_T

9th of May 2005 (Mon), 13:49

I also like the pictures ... especially the flying kick and the black dress one. Those two have great action / ambiance.

I'm not too enthusiastic about the costume and the background ... :confused:
they spoil the other pictures for me inasmuch as making them 'ok, but not really interesting'.

I mean, c'mon ... this guy spent years honing his body and his skills, and then he spoils it (for me, at least) by donning some 10$ outfit and taking the pictures in some kind of slum ...

If he had at least used some Asian clothes (like in 6), this would be a lot better. I also think that it might not be impossible to find some kind of Asian looking building (e.g. a temple or a restaurant) as background. But then, that might just be my uneducated opinion :wink: . Casting agencies might have other preferences.

Best regards,
Andy

Feihung08

9th of May 2005 (Mon), 19:30

Was that appartment building in Lakewood jO3?? Looks familiar.

And where does he train for Wushu?
I used to train at a place in Westminster. He has good form from what I can tell in these shots. Which you did a good job with btw. Not easy to do....I know, I've taken many myself! Film only though.

Feihung08

9th of May 2005 (Mon), 19:33

I also like the pictures ... especially the flying kick and the black dress one. Those two have great action / ambiance.

I'm not too enthusiastic about the costume and the background ... :confused:
they spoil the other pictures for me inasmuch as making them 'ok, but not really interesting'.

I mean, c'mon ... this guy spent years honing his body and his skills, and then he spoils it (for me, at least) by donning some 10$ outfit and taking the pictures in some kind of slum ...

If he had at least used some Asian clothes (like in 6), this would be a lot better. I also think that it might not be impossible to find some kind of Asian looking building (e.g. a temple or a restaurant) as background. But then, that might just be my uneducated opinion ;) . Casting agencies might have other preferences.

Best regards,
Andy
Andy, there is a movie out right now called Kung Fu Hustle (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373074/) that takes place primarily in the middle of an appartment complex. I believe that they were trying to recreate that setting with this back ground.

cfcRebel

9th of May 2005 (Mon), 20:02

Hahaha....when you see a pair of "Fei Yue", you know how serious the guy is in wushu. Nice wushu poses. ;)
You friend can definitely do more wushu aerial movements (based one what i saw above). Maybe those shots can sell. Just my 0.02.

D4VE

10th of May 2005 (Tue), 06:36

Great shots, love em :)

charlesu

10th of May 2005 (Tue), 06:43

man that shot was hard, just because I had to briefly pan it... I don't have any panning experience whatsoever... I tried AI Servo mode, but the capture was blurry as crap, so I just focused on him right before the apex of the kick, and moved back slightly... bleh, but considering the circumstances, I think it came out alright!

You used to be able to do the flying side kick?! haha dope!

Yeah, once upon a time I was pretty good. I was into bicycling before martial arts so I had really strong legs. Great side kick and awesome spinning back kick. I used to bait guys to charge me and then I'd hit them with a spinning back kick as they came in, when I was on the tournament circuit. These days I couldn't even get medical clearance to spar. Too many injuries and surgeries. But I loved every minute of the combat. I wish I had more pictures from the day. <sigh>

Feihung08

10th of May 2005 (Tue), 10:08

Yeah, once upon a time I was pretty good. I was into bicycling before martial arts so I had really strong legs. Great side kick and awesome spinning back kick. I used to bait guys to charge me and then I'd hit them with a spinning back kick as they came in, when I was on the tournament circuit. These days I couldn't even get medical clearance to spar. Too many injuries and surgeries. But I loved every minute of the combat. I wish I had more pictures from the day. <sigh>
Were you in Tai Kwan Do Charlesu??

jO3

11th of May 2005 (Wed), 04:48

Feihung08

11th of May 2005 (Wed), 10:07

It's Tae Kwon Do, Feihung08... just a minor correction...

And I'd love to see anyone else in action!

I scheduled another shoot with Alfred for next weekend, so I should have some more action shots by then! Sit tight, and thanks, everyone, for the comments! Does anyone have any good panning techniques? I'll have a 75-200 and a 24-70 for that weekend...

Thanks in advance!
*slaps self upside head*
Duh!
I was in a rush and just 'sounded' it out! That's what happens when you take a year of Japanese study and then try to spell something in Korean huh?!! ;)

Once I get my 20D I'm going back to my old Wushu school and get some action shots as well.

I don't have a lot of experience in the action shots, but you know what I'd like to try (that you can try for me basically) is that 'action zoom' thing in reverse. Sorry I don't know the tech speak for that but it would be something like having him jump kick right towards you while your zoomed 'in' and then zoom 'out' while he's in the air. It can be done in PS I know, but nothing beats the 'on camera' effects. Did that make sense??

cgratti

11th of May 2005 (Wed), 10:43

nice shots, would be nicer without the word PROOF splashed across the whole thing. Its not like someone with any skills can get rid of that if they wanted to. but, nice pics nontheless

jO3

12th of May 2005 (Thu), 02:29

nice shots, would be nicer without the word PROOF splashed across the whole thing. Its not like someone with any skills can get rid of that if they wanted to. but, nice pics nontheless

oh don't worry about that, it'll be gone once I edit the pics... most members here know that I only put a minimal frame border around my images... These pics are basically straight off the camera, so if anyone's going to reprint them anyways, I'd rather have the clean post-processed ones than these floating around!

jO3

12th of May 2005 (Thu), 02:33

nice shots, would be nicer without the word PROOF splashed across the whole thing. Its not like someone with any skills can get rid of that if they wanted to. but, nice pics nontheless

I think I know what you mean... I do a lot of those shots with my night shots... like this, right?

http://jo3design.com/gallery/albums/misc/IMG_1606.jpg

SuzanneCarey

12th of May 2005 (Thu), 08:56

"Photo Joe", I really like your pictures. Alfred has this air about him that makes you want to look at his pictures. I think you did a great job! I do not know much about action shots, but I am sure you will get what you want out of them with practice. I think the kicking one is awesome! He seems to be very talented!

Good stuff!

Suzanne